Seen as the toughest bathroom ban in the country, the Idaho law applies to both public buildings and private businesses while imposing significant time behind bars for violations.
Articles Posted in LGBTQ
New Kansas Law Targets the Transgender Community
Among other anti-transgender restrictions, SB 244 would require driver's licenses and birth certificates to reflect sex assigned at birth rather than an individual's gender identity.
Supreme Court Allows State Dept. to Require Birth Sex Markers on Passports
The conservative Justices sided with the Trump administration against advocates for the transgender community, who had brought an equal protection challenge to the policy.
Iowa Removes Gender Identity From Civil Rights Law
The change ends statutory protections for transgender people from discrimination in areas such as employment, housing, and education.
NH Supreme Court Upholds School Policy Protecting Transgender Students
The court ruled that a policy encouraging school staff to refrain from disclosing student transgender or gender non-conforming status to a parent did not violate parenting rights under the state constitution.
Supreme Court Upholds Orders Blocking Civil Rights Protections for Students
The Court declined to adjust orders barring the enforcement of a federal rule that aims to bolster the rights provided by Title IX.
Florida’s DeSantis Wins Victory in Court Battle With Disney
A federal judge dismissed a lawsuit against the Governor and other Florida officials in which Disney argued that it faced illegal retaliation for its opposition to a law affecting the LGBTQ+ community.
Courts Diverge on Gender-Affirming Care for Transgender Minors
A state judge in Montana temporarily blocked the enforcement of a ban on certain types of gender-affirming care, while the federal Sixth Circuit found that similar bans were likely constitutional.
New Jersey Residents May Now Change Their Birth Certificates to Reflect Gender-Neutral or Non-Binary Identities
On February 1, 2019, New Jersey joined Washington, Oregon, and California as the fourth U.S. state to allow its residents to change the gender designation on their birth certificates to reflect a gender-neutral identity. New York City has a law that allows residents to change their birth certificates accordingly as well.The New Jersey law covers transgender individuals who have undergone gender affirming surgery or simply identify as a gender different from what was assigned to them at birth. This includes non-binary individuals who may not identify strictly as male or female. The aim is to allow each individual to make a choice about their own identity, according to New Jersey Health Commissioner Shereef Elnahal. The options now available to New Jersey residents are ‘male,’ ‘female,’ and a third option called ‘undesignated’ or ‘non-binary.’
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LGBTQ, Transgender Rights
US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit Doubles Down on Position That Title VII Does Not Protect LGBT Employees
On February 6, a panel of the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit held that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964—which protects employees from discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, and national origin—does not protect employees from discrimination on the basis of transgender identity. In doing so, the court also affirmed its own 1979 decision that Title VII does not protect employees from discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. That interpretation of Title VII is at odds with the present interpretation by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC)—the agency charged with enforcing Title VII—as well as that of several other federal circuit courts.
